Hairpin organizer



Dec. 11, 1951 D BRUNNER 2,578,223

HAIRPIN ORGANIZER Filed April 10, 1947 Patented Dec. 11, 1951 HAIRPIN ORGANIZER Devona A. Brunner, Chicago, Ill., assignor of onehalf to Howard Brunner, Chicago, Ill.

Application April 10, 1947, Serial No. 740,638

12 Claims. 1

This invention relates to a device which may be termed a hairpin organizer and which facilitates the delivery into a receptacle of hairpins so that all of them will lie in the same manner, that is all of them having their closed ends at one end of the receptacle.

In the operation of a hair dressing establishment the process of temporarily pinning up a large number of curls on a single customer requires the use of upwards of 50 hairpins, usually of the type shown in the accompanying drawings. After these hairpins have served their purpose they are then removed and according to the usual practice thrown into a basket or other receptacle. In more recent years many of the operators employ magnets for removing the hairpins. However, whether the hairpins are removed by means of a magnet or by means of the fingers, they are thrown into an ordinary receptacle, and because of the nature of the pins they invariably become badly entangled with one another and subsequently when it is desired to use the pins again it is diflicult to extract them from the basket one at a time without lifting a large mass of the tangled pins in the efiort.

It is a notorious fact that the home users of hairpins also have the same difiiculty in the handling of these hairpins. I

When hairpins are purchased they are of course arranged in small bundles with their closed ends all at one end of the bundle, and are easily removed from such a group without any difhculty, and-they do not tangle with one another when so arranged subsequently in a dish. But to sort out a basket of pins already tangled is a task that rouses little enthusiasm.

Accordingly one of the objects of this invention is to provide an apparatus which facilitates the depositing of hairpins into a receptacle so that they all may lie in the same manner with their closed ends at one end of the receptacle, from which they may subsequently be removed either for storage, sterilizing or for immediate reuse.

Another object of this invention is to provide a device into which hairpins may be dropped, casually and without any particular efiort to sort them, but which will pass only those whose closed ends are leading.

Another object of the invention is to provide a gravity operated device of the character described which facilitates the sorting and orienting of hairpins so that they all may be deposited in a receptacle in a manner which minimizes the tendency of them to tangle with each other.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a perusal of this specification and drawing in which a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown and described.

On the drawings:

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a device made in accordance with this invention;

Figure 2 is an end elevation of the same device;

Figure 3 is a central vertical sectional view through the device, on a larger scale;

Figure 4 is a horizontal section on the line IV-IV of Fig. 3;

Figure 5 is a horizontal sectional view on the line VV of Fig. 3';

Figure 6 is a horizontal sectional view on the line VI-VI of Fig. 3;

Figure '7 is a horizontal sectional view on the line VII-VII of Fig. 3; and

Figure 8 is a full scale elevation of a hairpin of the type commonly employed in hair dressing establishments, and with which this invention is concerned.

Figure 9 is a plan View of an alternative form of receptacle.

The other figures in the drawings are on a reduced scale compared with Fig. 8.

It will be understood that the invention is not limited to the use of hairpins exactly like that shown in Fig. 8, but that type, commonly in use, is here illustrated in order that one may perceive readily how hairpins of this type and similar types may easily become entangled with each other. The so called bobby pins, whose two arms are held in contact by spring action, do not readily tangle with each other.

As shown on the drawing:

The device includes an open receptacle II) which may assume various shapes but preferably will be shaped about as shown so that the hairpins may fall and slide toward the front open end of the device. Secured to the sides of the receptacle are a pair of rigid standards II and I 2, which support pins [3 on which is centrally and oscillatably mounted a cylinder I 4. At the top of the standard there is stationarily supported a funnel i5, and preferably the upper ends of the standards are bowed outwardly and secured to embossments IE and I! which may be formed integrally with the funnel. However, other means of attaching the funnel to the top of the standard may be employed.

For sorting the pins as they are dropped into the funnel and fall through the cylinder 14 are a series of cross wires, the first of which comprise a pair of wires l8 and is extending across the cylinder as shown and fixed in the wall of the cylinder.

At a level below the wires !8 and i and spaced downwardly therefrom. preferably more than the length of hairpins which may be suspended on the wires [8 and is are positioned another set of wires 29, 2| and 22. It will be noted that this last set are disposed in a plane parallel to the wires shown in Fig. l but they extend at right angles to the first set of wires.

Again, at another level spaced downwardly preferably more than the length of the hairpins which may be suspended on the wires 2%}, 2i and 22 are disposed another set of wires 23, 24 and 25. All these wires may be secured in any suitable manner in the wall of the cylinder. For example, small wires of about the diameter of the hairpins themselves, or somewhat heavier if desired may be inserted through holes in the cylinder and secured in any appropriate manner.

The cylinder itself may be composed of various materials. It may be a metal tube, and accordingly the wires will be supported therein in a manner suitable for cooperation with such a. metal tube. I prefer, however, to use a trans parent material for the cylinder, for example a plastic material so that the operator may readily see how many hairpins have accumulated. inside of the cylinder. An advantage of the plastic material is its lightness which of course diminishes the tendency of the whole device to be top heavy. Likewise, for the same reason, the funnel or hopper l5 may be formed of plastic material and shaped in any desired manner.

Preferably the tubular member it is cylindrical, although other shapes may be employed, and preferably its diameter should be less than the length of the hair pins dropped into it so that they may not fall onto the cross wires or onto each other while extending horizontally. The hopper and tubular member constitute a simple and effective means for orienting the hair pins to arrange them somewhat vertically as they fall by gravity through the apparatus. Also, when the tubular member i is inverted (see Fig. 3), the limited diameter of the tube keeps the hairpins properly oriented as they fall off the intercepting wires and emerge into the receptacle iii.

In Fig. 3 I have shown a group of hairpins positioned just above the hopper, suggesting that as hairpins are pulled from the head of the customer and dropped into the hopper, some of them will probably have their closed ends extending downwardly and some their open ends extending downwardly. It is obvious that the uniform spacing of the hairpins as shown in Fig. 3 will seldom if ever occur, but purely for ease of illustration they are shown that way in the drawing. It is not necessary that they be equally spaced or intentionally spaced at all. They may be thrown in in groups, and the device is capable of handling them no matter how they are thrown in.

I have found that hen hairpins are thrown into the hopper in a very casual manner those with the closed ends leading will fall past all of the wires !8 to 25 inclusive and will slide into the bottom of the receptacle, as indicated. 0n the other hand all hairpins whose open ends are leading as they fall from the hopper will fall astride of some one of the wires which extend across the cylinder. Many of them will be caught by the wires l3 and I9 and will hang suspended as indicated in Fig. 3 but some will pass the first level of wires and will fall astride of the second level 2O, 21 and 22. Those few which manage to miss the first two levels of wires, and some of them do, will be caught on the lowermost level, that is the wires 23, 24 or 25.

In order to remove the hairpins which are thus hung on the cross wires, it is necessary only to invert the cylinder, whereupon the suspended hairpins will be dropped into the receptacle with their closed ends leading.

As the cylinder is being inverted and before it has completed its rotation some of the hairpins will be ready to fall from it, hence 1 provide the curved blocking channel 2% having flanges 21 and 23 which prevent sidewise escape of any hairpins. The upward extent of the blocking channel 26 as shown is sufficient to receive and cover the open end of the cylinder as soon as such blocking is needed, which occurs approximately at the horizontal position of the cylinder.

In order to stop the cylinder when it is inverted I provide at its normally upper end a projection 29 which is so located that it will pass through the bowed upper end of the standard H, as may be seen in Fig. 2, but when the cylinder is inverted the projection 29 will bump against the lower portion of the standard 5 i and stop the cylinder in an exactly vertical position. As soon as all of the hairpins have fallen out of the cylinder into the receptacle the operator may merely release the cylinder and it will right itself. To assist in this latter opertion I prefer to secure a weight in the lower end of the cylinder and may employ a relatively heavy insert 38 in the form of a tapered sleeve, as indicated, secured in any appropriate manner.

Also at the lower end of the cylinder I provide another projection 3! which will normally rest against one edge of the standard i and assist in maintaining the cylinder in its vertical position, and prevent it being oscillated inadvertently in the wrong direction.

In the use of the device the operator or home user may merely toss hairpins into the funnel i3 and allow them to fall into the cylinder. Those Whose closed ends are leading will fall past all of the cross wires and arrange themselves in the receptacle with closed ends first. Those hairpins whose open ends were leading as they fall into the hopper will fall astride of some of the cross wires, and from time to time as they accumulate therein the operator or home user need only to invert the cylinder It to cause the hairpins contained therein also to fall into the receptacle with their closed ends leading. Preferably the floor of the receptacle is inclined sufficiently to cause the pins to slide forwardly Well toward the end of the receptacle in a uniform arrangement to maintain their closed ends leading and all of them lying generally parallel with one another. Hairpins accumulated in the receptacle may be left there until used or may be transferred therefrom to some place of storage for future use.

In Figure 9 I have shown a plan view of a multiple compartment receptacle 32 in which three troughs 33, 34, and 35 are formed with the aid of upwardly tapered ridges S6 and 31. The location of the tube [4 above this receptacle is indicated in dotted lines. The support standards l l and i2 are to be attached to the receptacle sides but need to be bent inwardly sufficiently to pivotally support the tube [4 and rigidly support the hopper [5. Hairpins dropping from the tube 14 when upright or when inverted will drop into and slide forwardly in each of the three compartments in proportions dependent more or less onchance. In such dividedgroups they accumulate and may conveniently be removed when needed. As in the case of the receptacle Iii with the single collecting trough, each trough is so shaped at its entrance end that hair pins falling thereinto in vertical positions are gradually deflected toward a nearly horizontal position as they slide forwardly in each trough.

The manner of arranging the cross wires on this cylinder is subject to some variation. Up to the present time I have found that wires arranged as illustrated, and in the number illustrated appear to work satisfactorily, but it is apparent that other arrangements of these cross wires may be employed.

It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to the precise details of construction herein shown, but that the invention may be varied throughout a wide range and may be embodied in various forms differing from each other and from the disclosure, without departing from the principles of the invention or the scope thereof as defined in the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U -shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, and a recepacle positioned below said tubular member for receiving hair pins falling therefrom and shaped to collect said hair pins in uniform arrangement with their closed ends all pointing in one direction.

2. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U-shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, and a receptacle positioned below said tubular member for receiving hair pins falling therefrom and shaped to collect said hair pins with their closed ends leading and extending away from the tubular member.

3. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U-shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, means for pivotally supporting said tubular member in normally upright position but allowing it to be pivotally inverted and means below said tubular member for receiving and collecting hair pins discharged from the tubular member.

4. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U-shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, means for pivotally supporting said tubular member in normally upright position but allowing it to be pivotally inverted, means for preventing discharge of hair pins from the tubular member during inverting movement thereof and means below said tubular member for receiving and collecting hairpins discharged from the tubular member.

5. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U-shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, and a receptacle positioned below said tubular member for receiving hair pins falling therefrom and having a plurality of troughs shaped to collect said hairpins with their closed ends leading and extending away from said tubular member.

6. In a hair pin organizer, a tubular member having intercepting members extending transversely therein spaced to permit the passage therethrough of U-shaped hair pins delivered into said tubular member and whose closed ends are leading and disposed to intercept those whose open ends are leading, and means positioned below said tubular member for receiving hair pins falling therefrom including a plurality of troughs shaped to collect said hairpins with their closed ends leading and extending away from said tubular member.

7. A hair pin organizer comprising a normally vertical tubular member having horizontal intercepting members extending transversely thereacross at a plurality of levels vertically spaced apart more than the length of the hair pins to be intercepted and extending horizontally at such various angles and spacing relatively to each other and the width of the hair pins to be organized as to positively intercept any hair pin falling through said tubular member with its open ends leading while allowing free passage therethrough for hair pins whose closed ends are leading when falling, a receptacle disposed below said tubular member having a curved inclined floor for receiving hair pins discharged from said tubular member for collecting the hair pins in uniform arrangement with their closed ends all pointing in one direction, means pivotally supporting said tubular member upon said receptacle in position for delivering hair pins selectively from either end of the member into the receptacle, and means for closing the normally upper end of the tubular member during inverting movement thereof.

8. In a hair pin organizer, a vertical tubular chamber and a plurality of horizontal intercepting bars extending transversely therein from wall to wall at a plurality of levels vertically spaced apart more than the length of the hair pins to be intercepted, said bars at different levels being disposed at such various angles to any arbitrarily selected diameter of said tubular chamber and being so relatively spaced that U-shaped hair pins of the character described may fall through said chamber past and between said bars if their closed ends are leading as they fall but such hair pins, if their open ends are leading as they fall, will fall astride at least one of said bars and be suspended thereon.

9. In a hair pin organizer, a vertical tubular chamber, a plurality of horizontal intercepting bars extending transversely therein from wall to wall at a plurality of levels vertically spaced apart, said bars at different levels being disposed at such various angles to any arbitarily selected diameter of said tubular chamber and being so relatively spaced that U-shaped hair pins of the character described may fall through said chamber past and between said bars if their closed ends are leading as they fall but such hair pins, if their open ends are leading as they fall, will fall astride at least one of said bars and be suspended thereon, and means pivotally supporting 7 said chamber facilitating the inverting thereof to discharge the suspended hair pins. 7

10. In a hair pin organizer, a vertical tubular chamber and a plurality of horizontal intercepting bars extending transversely therein from wall to wall at a plurality of levels vertically spaced apart, said bars at different levels being disposed at such various angles to any arbitrarily selected diameter of said tubular chamber and being so relatively spaced that U-shaped hair pins of the character described may fall through said chamber past and between said bars if their closed ends are leading as they fall but such hair pins, if their open ends are leading as they fall, will fall astride at least one of said bars and be suspended thereon.

11, A device for aligning bifurcated articles of the shape of hair pins of the character described, comprising a vertical tubular chamber having a diameter less than the length of said articles, and intercepting bars extending transversely within said tubular chamber from wall to wall at a plurality of vertically spaced levels, the bars traversing said chamber horizontally at such a plurality of angles and being so relatively spaced that while said bifurcated articles, whose closed ends are leading, may readily fall through said chamber between and past all of said bars any such article whose open end is leading during its fall into said chamber must fall astride one 36 of said bars and be suspended thereon by its closed end.

12. A device for aligning bifurcated articles of the shape of hair pins of the character described,

comprising a vertical tubular chamber having a diameter less than the length of said articles, intercepting bars extending transversely within said tubular chamber from wall to wall at a plurality of vertically spaced levels, the bars traversing said chamber horizontally at such a plurality'of angles and being so relatively spaced that while said bifurcated articles, whose closed ends are leading, may readily fall through said chamber between and past all of said bars any such article whose open end is leading during its fall into said chamber must fall astride one of said bars and be suspended thereon by it's closed end, a base member including a receptacle having an inclined fioor portion positioned below the lower end of said chamber for receiving vertically falling articles therefrom and a generally horizontal floor portion onto which the articles may slide thereafter, and means pivotally supporting said chamber on said base whereby either end of the chamber may be rotated into position immediately above said inclined floor portion.

DEVONA A. BRUNNER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 635,588 Pondorf Oct. 24, 1899 1,326,925 Goldberg Jan. 6, 1920 1,533,180 Goldberg Apr. 14, 1924 2,373,623 Yost Apr. 10, 1945 

